Create Basecamp Dashboards in Bold BI

Bold BI allows you to create, share, and collaborate on interactive BI dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to Basecamp data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Basecamp and build reports from Basecamp data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Basecamp, allowing you to easily build reports from live Basecamp data in Bold BI — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Bold BI generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Basecamp, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Basecamp data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Basecamp Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "Basecamp" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Basecamp.

   Basecamp uses basic or OAuth 2.0 authentication. To use basic authentication you will need the user and password that you use for logging in to Basecamp. To authenticate to Basecamp via OAuth 2.0, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties by registering an app with Basecamp.

   See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a connection guide.

   Additionally, you will need to specify the AccountId connection property. This can be copied from the URL after you log in.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to Basecamp data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Basecamp Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Basecamp data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into your Bold BI instance, click the data sources tab, create a new data source, and choose the SQL Server connector.
2. Choose the basic configuration and set the connection properties:
   • Name: Name your connection
   • Server name: Your Connect Server instance (CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
   • Port: 1433
   • Username: Your Connect Server username
   • Password: Your Connect Server password
   • Mode: Choose Live to query Basecamp on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (basecampdb)
3. Click Connect
4. Select the table to visualize and drag it onto the workspace.
5. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
6. Click the gear icon for the visualization to configure the visualization properties and assign columns to the visualization.

SQL Access to Basecamp Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Basecamp data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Basecamp data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect page.